DEATH WATCH IN PETWORTH

Traumatized Residents Ask: How Many More Women?

With news of Dana Hill's death, community leaders in Petworth added another
body to a growing tally and openly, and grimly, prepared for more. "If this
is a group of women who frequented the same place," asked Joe Ruffin,
giving voice to something circulating in the neighborhood, "how many are
left?"

By yesterday, even as District police sought a possible connection between
Hill, whose body was discovered Monday, and a series of five other recent
deaths, word that the latest victim shared a lot in common with some, if
not all, of the other women was wellknown in Petworth. James Cole, whose
wife, Jessica, disappeared from the area in October, said she knew all of
the victims.

That question of "How many?" now lingers in Petworth, once a model
community for the black middle class and still home to many working
families who have lived in this onceprized section of Northwest Washington
for decades. Princeton Place, now infamous in the area because of its
connection to six recent deaths, is only two blocks long and ends on the
grounds of the historic Soldiers and Airmens Home, where Abraham Lincoln
once lived and still a neighborhood jewel.

But the area changed dramatically in the 1980s, as the crack cocaine
business took root along Princeton Place, Otis Place, Newton Place and
Morton Place, which to a great degree form the boundaries of the current
police investigation. Flush with Georgia Avenue, these streets and the
trade that thrived there have claimed residents for almost a decade, from
those who live in the public housing complex on Morton to the sons and
daughters of the stable, middleclass families.

The toll this has taken on a small enclave of row homes, according to
longtime residents, religious leaders, police officers and others, has been
enormous. Among the people interviewed as part of the police inquiry are a
number of exconvicts who have served their time and returned to the
neighborhood that claimed them in the first place. Crack has affected the
structural integrity of the neighborhood, where for years residents have
been complaining about crack houses and the sexfordrugs trade brokered on
Georgia Avenue and consummated in back alleys and vacant houses.

Hard times have skewed the census. "We have more females than males most
of them are in jail," said Tony Saunders, who grew up in the neighborhood.
The cycle of drug dependency, and its toll on families, is also reflected
in the fact that women with problems have returned to their families, and
to a neighborhood where temptation often is found on the same block.

"They are in need. That is the reason these girls are living with their
mother or their grandmother," Ruffin, director of constituent services for
D.C. Council member Frank Smith Jr. (DWard 1) and a familiar figure in
Petworth, said of some of the dead women. "They all tend to stay nearby,
because they all need help."

How the neighborhood's pathology has played out in a set of deaths that
began in November 1996 is now central to the police investigation.
Detectives already have found a link between many of the women and a
particular corner, Georgia Avenue and Otis Place.

The blocks now scrutinized by police include several wellknown crack
houses and two locales where stolen cars are "processed" for parts. Newton
Place recently has been beset by a drug gang from Maryland. This last
intrusion produced a pleading, anonymous letter from residents to Smith on
Oct. 12.

The street's notoriety goes back to 1985, when a man and a woman were found
slain at 768 Princeton Place, the same address where one body in the most
recent deaths was discovered Aug. 9 and next door to where two others in
the recent string were found, on May 8 and Nov. 18. It is unclear whether
the 12yearold double slaying has been solved police say they are now
in the process of reviewing all the deaths on Princeton Place. Over the
last two years as well, at least three women have died of acute drug
intoxication, including one who had been spotted on the day she died,
dazed, on Princeton Place.

For longtime residents, the neighborhood's descent is chronicled in the
physical decay and in the sad tales of folks they grew up with who went
astray. Sharing stories about the recent dead women is common and includes
passing tips to one another on who was seen with whom. The talk yesterday
was about Hill, who grew up on Princeton Place and, according to court
records, used cocaine and was arrested in August 1996 for solicitation.

Hill's family declined to comment. But the Rev. James Till, who knows the
family, said the Hill family in many ways represented the best side of
Petworth. Catherine Hill, the victim's mother, volunteers at the school and
is "a wonderful lady, and the neighborhood is full of wonderful people. But
then there is this other element," said Till, who works with Strategies to
Elevate People, or STEP, a Dallasbased Christian group that targets public
housing communities and has been in the neighborhood for six years.

It is this other element police are scrutinizing. Court records and
interviews with police investigators, family members and others largely
support what the community is saying about the dead women: that they had
drug problems that may have placed them in the path of a killer. The belief
that their lifestyles, in turn, made them more dispensable in the eyes of
authorities is also strong in Petworth.

"Because of the neighborhood, and the women doing what they were doing, I
felt like they were easy targets," said Cheryl Lee, whose sister, Emile
Dennis, was found dead on Princeton Place. "One of the reasons a lot wasn't
said was because of the drug use and the drug area `It's just a bunch of
black women.' "

Police officials have assured the community at several meetings that the
deaths were investigated from the onset. The one concession they make,
privately, is that the failure to find a cause of death in the first three
may have placed them "on the shelf," as one senior police official said.

Among the many challenges faced by investigators now is encouraging a
reluctant community to come forward, an enormous task because so many
lawabiding residents have little confidence in the police and because
those in the netherworld have little compunction to cooperate.

The 4th Police District has distributed more than 3,000 fliers on the
deaths, seeking cooperation, but years of violence on the streets have
imposed a code of silence that is hard to break, even in an emergency.

"Many people don't want to talk to uniformed officers," said Cmdr. Ronald
Monroe, who began working in the neighborhood 15 years ago and now is in
charge of the 4th District.

That isn't the only problem faced by police on the streets. Monroe said
women who are now vulnerable have not heeded warnings. "What we find
somewhat distressing is that in the late evening hours . . . we are still
having officers seeing women walking alone and unescorted," Monroe said
Monday night, before news of Hill's death was made public.

Staff writer Justin Gillis contributed to this report.

THE CASES

District police are investigating the deaths of several women and the
discovery of a woman's torso, all found within several blocks of each other.

1. Priscilla Mosley

Discovered Nov. 17, 1996, at 636 Newton Pl. NW, age 49.

2. Lateashia Blocker

Discovered May 8, 1997, at 766 Princeton Pl. NW, age 28.

3. Emile Dennis

Discovered Aug. 9, 1997, at 768 Princeton Pl. NW, age 42.

4. Jessica Cole

Missing since Oct. 10, 1997, age 41.

5. Female torso

Discovered Oct. 13, 1997, behind 1465 Meridian Pl. NW, age unknown.

6. Jacqueline Teresa Birch

Discovered Nov. 18, 1997, at 766 Princeton Pl. NW, age 39.

7. Dana Hill

Discovered Monday in the 300 block of Florida Avenue NE, age 34.